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Heart confident against Adelaide

Greg Buckle

Melbourne Heart A-League coach John Aloisi has been doing plenty of talking and on Friday it will fall to his players to show they've learnt from the mistakes of their loss to Sydney FC.

Not for the first time this season, the Heart faded on Sunday as they conceded two late goals in a 2-1 loss to the Sky Blues.

A clash against second-placed Adelaide United at AAMI Park provides the Heart with the chance to jump back into the top six.

It's the first leg of a triple-header for the Heart which includes an away game against fourth-placed Western Sydney and a Melbourne derby against the Victory.

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Aloisi has been hammering home the message to his players that 80 minutes of good football isn't enough and that everyone needs to be a coach on the field.

"It's important for us to get a win because we want to get back into the top six and plus it will give confidence to the players that they can beat a team sitting second-top," Aloisi told reporters on Thursday.

"Sometimes when you're up, the opposition are going to throw players forward but we shouldn't really change our structure too much or our way of playing.

"If we keep on doing the things that we were doing well earlier on, you'll keep possession and it's easier then to stop them from keeping on attacking you.

"Against Sydney FC we started to drop off too much. We lost the ball, we lost possession and that's why we invited pressure.

"They have to make decisions out there to make sure it doesn't happen again.

"I don't know if it's a lack of concentration. It's more the players coaching each other out there, making sure if they see it happening that they do something about it.

"We've spoken about it at length and I'm sure they'll learn from the mistakes they've made.

"It's not just (captain) Fred. It's not just the leaders, it's everyone on the pitch."

Aloisi said Fred would be fit to play despite limping off with hamstring cramp in the 73rd minute against Sydney FC.

The Heart mentor said he wasn't surprised at the way the Reds, who are coming off a 3-2 win over Perth Glory, have powered to 32 points including 10 wins from 16 rounds.